page_title: Yamhill River lock and dam
section_title: Operation from 1900 to 1902
hierarchical_section_title: Yamhill River lock and dam / Operation from 1900 to 1902
caption_attribution_description: English: Advertisement placed in the Morning Oregonian on January 6, 1902, by the Oregon City Transportation Company, advertising steamer service from Portland to points on the Willamette and Yamhill rivers.
context_page_description: The Yamhill River lock and dam was completed in 1900. It was built near Lafayette, Oregon, to allow better river transport on the Yamhill River from Dayton, to McMinnville, Oregon. While the Corps of Engineers had recommended against construction of the lock, it was built anyway, largely as a result of political effort by the backers of the project. For almost forty years prior to the lock construction there had been efforts made to construct a lock and dam on the Yamhill River.
  The lock was a single-lift chamber 210 feet long and 40 feet wide, located on the west side of the river. The dam extended from the east bank of the river to the eastern lock wall, and when the lock gates were shut, acted to back up the Yamhill river and raise the water level sufficiently to allow ready steamboat navigation to McMinnville during the summer dry season. During the winter the lock and dam were more of an obstruction than an navigational aid, as they were frequently overtopped by freshets and floods, sometimes as high as or higher than twenty feet above the lock walls.
  The lock ceased to be used in any significant way soon after it was built.
context_section_description: On September 24, 1900, the steamer Bonita (later renamed Metlako), became the first steamboat to transit the lock.
  From the formal opening to navigation on September 24, 1900 to the end of the fiscal year, on June 30, 1901, the lock was in operation for 202 days and closed, because of high water, for 78 days.  There were 225 lockages.  Total operating time was 67 hours and 32 minutes.  Total registered tons transiting the locks was 38,967.  The total freight carried was 1,742 tons.  Total passengers carried were 2,010.
  In November 1901, steamboats were reported to be running regularly between Portland and McMinnville, running upriver one day and down the next, loaded to capacity with grain.
  One steamboat making the run, in November 1901, was the Altona, which then ran three times weekly from Portland to McMinnville.
  On January 6, 1902, the Oregon City Transportation Company, also known as the "Yellow Stack Line" advertised regular service, on the steamer Altona from Portland to McMinnville.  Altona was scheduled to depart from Portland to McMinnville at 7:00 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from the company's dock at the foot of Taylor Street in Portland.
  On January 8, 1902, the water in the Yamhill River had risen too high to permit navigation.  The sternwheel steamer Altona which had just resumed the run from Portland to McMinnville after a hiatus of about three weeks, was forced to proceed no further than Dayton on the Yamhill River.
  The previous suspension of service by Altona had been due to lack of business.  With no steamer service, the merchants of Dayton and McMinnville began considering building their own steamer.  Captain Graham, of the Oregon City Transportation Company, the owner of Altona, conferred with the merchants and explained his position.  The merchants agreed that they would provide sufficient business and Captain Graham agreed to keep Altona on the McMinnville run.
  During fiscal year 1902, there were 246 lockages transiting 48,240 registered tonnage of vessels, carrying 3,455 tons of freight, including 571 tons of sand and gravel shipped in to repair the locks.  The railroads lowered their rates to compete, and kept most of the shipping business.
  In 1902, despite the agreement of the merchants to patronize the steamers, the Oregon City Transportation Company withdrew their steamers permanently from service above Dayton.  This was said by the company to have been because the difficulties in predicting when the lock would be open during the winter months made it impossible to build up business.  Although efforts were made later to establish steamboat service to McMinnville, this withdrawal by the Oregon City Transportation Company marked the end of regular commercial steamboat use of the lock, even though it was to help establish that service that the lock had been built and completed just two years before.
caption: Advertisement placed January 6, 1902 for steamer service to points on the Willamette and Yamhill rivers, including McMinnville, which would have required use of the Yamhill lock.
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